i will follow your lead
by stormcages
Summary: Amy and Rory try to get Mels to dance.
1. i will follow your lead

Mels sat in the back, her arms crossed and her eyes unfocused. She vaguely watched Rory and Amy as they fumbled their way through the Cha Cha slide. Amy ignored every third step and did whatever she liked instead, while Rory focused so hard on following the directions he was always a beat and a half behind. Mels watched as the music stopped and half a dozen middle schoolers paused, unsure if they should clap or just go back with their friends.

Amy and Rory bounded back over to Mels, both breathing heavy from activity.

"Come ON, Mels! You've gotta have fun," Amy whined, pulling on one of her arms. Mels shook her head, shrinking back further into herself.

"You two go. I don't dance."

In a huff, Amy turned and ran back out to go dance some more. Mels caught Rory's gaze and motioned with her chin back over at Amy. Sometimes, she liked to think that what was doing wasn't dangerous, that she wasn't risking her own existence, that if she pushed just hard enough at staying invisible she'd be okay.

Rory paused, completely torn between running after Amy and grabbing Mels. He did both. With a tug so hard he nearly popped her arm out of its socket, Rory pulled Mels up and onto the floor. Mels tried to back away, but Rory pulled her again.

"C'mon, Mels. We want to dance with you."

Mels thought long and hard about what she wanted to do next. Rory was no match for her should she actually fight him, as he well knew. Finally, she let Rory drag her along until she stood in the middle of a bunch of carefree kids all decades younger than her. Amy was dancing crazily, but she still had a sense of rhythm. Rory danced out of sheer determination, his tongue between his lips as he tried to imitate Amy without her noticing. Mels had never danced before and she looked down at her feet, stealing glimpses of what Amy and Rory did. She memorized each movement, each flick of Amy's wrist and each jerky shake of Rory's leg.

Finally, Mels began to dance. It was a hesitant dance, one with more arm movements than hip movements but Amy's face lit up and she started to dance with her, grabbing her hands and pulling them back and forth. At first shocked, Mels absorbed the information, trying to take it in stride. Mels finally cracked a smile, giving into a silly little dance. She forced herself not to think, something so much easier said than done. In the heat of the moment, she grabbed Rory and spun him around, dancing next to him with total abandon.

Mels attracted quite a crowd. She was the bad girl, the one that had punched Jeff Mulligan so hard he'd been knocked out when he said something mean about Rory (but no one knew what he'd said and Mels had made sure he'd never repeat it). Teachers watched, half-afraid that the dancing was the calm before some horrible storm.

After another half an hour and all the teachers' worries were put to rest, Mels, Amy, and Rory all ran to the back and collapsed in a heap of giggles and stolen cups of punch. When the lights came on and they were all told to go home, Amy and Rory bounded off home, waving animatedly at their friend.

Mels watched them leave and turned to head back home herself. She stood on the sidewalk, pulling out a pen and a piece of paper. Scribbling furiously, she scratched out a note. When she pulled the pen back, in black ink and a messy scrawl, were the words "october 13, 1999. mom and dad taught me how to dance, and i did a lot of dancing. a lot. it was fun." She read the words back to herself before shoving the note into her pocket and sprinting away.


	2. all you gotta do is show me

The Doctor found her in a party on Dreyla 18. He'd been running around, tinkering with little bells and nodules in order to avoid tripping the alarm system, occasionally chatting with some random bloke in order to blend in. It hadn't worked too well, but he hadn't had anything more than the usual strange look. The Frewtins weren't supposed to know that he was there, not The Doctor with all his capitals, but a strange man having strange conversations wasn't a big tip off just yet.

He'd ducked under a table at the last possible moment to avoid being seen by a guard, only to find that the table was occupied.

River Song was curled up, her skirts taking up far more room than she'd originally intended, her finger pressed to her lips urgently.

The Doctor nodded, scuttling closer so that the tablecloth fell around him. In the dark, he could still make out her smile and her arched eyebrow.

"I found a thing," he whispered.

Smiling, River nodded, taking the finger away from her lips.

"Me too."

They both paused, listening for the heavy sounds of the guardsman. There weren't any. The Doctor moved to press an ear to the ground, looking out from underneath the tablecloth. No one close by. He sat back up and motioned for her to leave. She did just that, and how she managed to get out from under the table with all the skirts he did not know, but she was all grace and finesse.

When he stood back up, he grinned at her. She was wearing his favorite dress, the one he'd taken her ice skating in for her birthday.

"Have we done the Frost Fair?" he asked, offering her his arm.

"So you recognize the dress?"

"Of course."

She led him over to the dance floor. She lifted the train of her skirt in one hand and turned to face him, placing the other hand on his shoulder. He gripped her waist tightly and they set off dancing.

River danced smoothly, like one who had years of practice under her belt. The Doctor danced like one who had to think about his every step, but he tried his best not to show it. She pretended not to notice the small fumble for grip when he spun her. He let her. They continued to dance in easy silence for a few bars, letting music guide their actions.

"Do you see it?"

"It?"

"Over there, underneath the painting of the Frewtin Civil War general."

"Oh! That 'it'! I disarmed that a few moments before I found you."

"It's blinking red, Doctor."

"… It wasn't doing that a few moments before, was it?"

"I think you may have been found out."

"… It is blinking red, isn't it?"

"The guards are all watching us now. Shall we at least put on a show?"

"Always."

The two separated in a blink, each moving in the exact opposite direction. River pulled a gun from her sleeve and shot at the painting, letting it fall to the floor in a crash of sparks and coal. The partygoers jumped again when they heard the high pitched sonic as it opened a door. The Frewtin police force scrambled to chase after them both, hopping over tables and chairs and guests. After minutes of running and shooting and spinning, River and the Doctor both made it back to the TARDIS safely. Safely enough, anyway: the back of River's dress had gotten a bit singed by a stray blast and the Doctor had punch dripping from his hair.

As the Doctor began to plot coordinates, River began to spin the time constraining loop and gave the transducer a kick. Together, they piloted the TARDIS out of there, letting her spin off into the vortex.

With time to stop and chat, the Doctor made his way over to River, watching over her shoulder as she pulled the space reflexer lever down to the red.

"Where did you learn how to dance, River?"

"Not from you, if that's what you think."

"I did not think that," he replied, indignant. River rolled her eyes, watching from the corner of her eye as he crossed his arms melodramatically. "But… where? You're good at it."

"Well thank you, sweetie."

"Where? Do you remember?"

"Of course I remember. I learned from my Mum and Dad."

The Doctor cracked a smile.

"Then tell me about it."


End file.
